2014 Commencement

RIT commencement celebration consists of two ceremonies and the university will confer degrees upon nearly 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

At the Academic Convocation on Friday, May 23, RIT will recognize the accomplishments of graduates from all nine colleges, the Center for Multidisciplinary Studies and the Golisano Institute for Sustainability by officially conferring degrees. During the Convocation, the commencement speaker, Nobel Prize winner William Daniel Phillips, will deliver the keynote address. The university will acknowledge outstanding teachers and students graduating with honors, and all students will be recognized collectively by their college. By recognizing the excellence of our faculty and students, we spotlight RIT tradition, university pride and community spirit.

RIT individual college commencement ceremonies held on both Friday, May 23, and Saturday, May 24 will recognize the graduates individually.

The Academic Convocation and the accompanying college commencement celebration will be a culminating experience for graduates, families and friends; a capstone of their time at RIT; and a fitting finale to years of hard work and sacrifice.

Phillips, an award-winning researcher with the National Institute of Standards and Technology who shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics, will speak at the Academic Convocation, set for 10 a.m. May 23 in the Gordon Field House and Activities Center.

RIT President Bill Destler said the university is honored to have a scientist of Phillips’ caliber addressing its graduates.

“Beyond Dr. Phillips’ most impressive list of achievements, I believe our graduates will find his record of innovation and leadership in scientific research to be an inspiration,” Destler said. “We look forward to hosting him on campus for our commencement celebration.”

In 1997, Phillips shared the Nobel Prize in physics “for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.”